BARACK Hussein Obama is 44th President of the United States of America, Once upon a time the most powerful country with its booming economy backed by a powerful nuclear laced military. He is as popularly stated an African American. His mother was white and his father a black of Kenyaian origin. He is the first from that race of ‘slaves’ whose exploitation; torture, starvation and killing is recounted by countless memories and fiction writers. They were treated worse than animals.

It must be a great liberating and cathartic moment for those millions in that great country. It ought to be the same for the liberal Americans too who put a black man to occupy the thrones in White House in Washington. They had suffered too long and under very trying torturous years to achieve this victory from the jaws of the rightists, racialist and neo conservatives. We all salute them. America has not after all lost everything. Media across the world even lost its balance in covering the elections for several months and the results and the post election scenes. Many Indian newspapers vied with each other and devoted nearly half of the space on days together. There is stopping.

But we all must thank a willful, brutal and absurd President George W. Bush whose dehumanized military adventures and pro rich policies, feeding a highly ravenous profiteering capitalism laid the foundation of the return to the Democrats in a big way to the Presidency and to the two houses of American Congress. But for the collapsing economy, losing homes and jobs and poor health care and education this would have not been possible.

All this could be good for the Americans and the world plagues by wars, bloodshed and recession. As one former Indian diplomat wrote,
“Doubts about any substantive changes in American policies abroad of its own volition .If at all, the change is a result of the sacrifices by the Iraqis, Hezbollah, Palestinians, Afghans; defiance by Tehran and Damascus, in Latin America by Chavez and others, Moscow's beating back of the proxy challenge by US puppet in Georgia and coming into being of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in central Asia. Yes, the change of electing a Kenyan –US American (not true Afro-American, with memories of two centuries of slavery, exploitation and humiliation) Barack Obama was brought about by the collapse of the US economic structure, unlikely to be put back on the rails any time soon.”

Increasingly a question is being asked, can Obama deliver a peace in the strife torn world. Can he refurbish social and personal life of the people and does he a plan beside some rhetoric to bring the economy on rails. Can he get rid the unabashed exploitative capitalist model and provide some sense to the madness of the avaricious rich. Can he bring peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and withdraw the murderous gangs which the United State and other imperialist countries have unleashed on the poor innocent people. Some seven lakh Iraqis, Afghans and others have died since nine eleven. Surely he can not bring them back to life, yet he can save other millions and he degraded environment that threatens the very life on the planet.

Can he?

His past does not support that he can. He has often sided with Bush in case of wars and economy during the last four years.

Yet Obama can break his own past and that of America and rewrite history. He does not have to humiliate Martin Luther Kings in America and across the world.

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